Inside Israel Today: Caroline Glick vs Donald Trump

Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be subjected to massive pressure to embrace the American plan and there's only going to be one force the point could be pressuring him not you you're listening to inside Israel today with Gail Hoffman on the Land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel network on the Land of Israel comm broadcasting from Jerusalem as our election is getting closer we now have only another six weeks and then we're gonna be there it's really really happening and so we are continuing our meet the candidates series where we have had candidates from yesh anteed from the Labour Party from merits in the centre and left and we've had Susie Diane from liklihood from the right and borrow from ourself from the far far right and so now we have the new right coming on our show today my former colleague the esteemed columnist of The Jerusalem Post for so many years Carolyn Glick is going to be here on our show today in an exclusive first radio I believe a interview since she has entered politics Carolyn thank you so much for coming here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network oh it's great talking to you okay so Carolyn you you've been a journalist for so many years why would you move to the dark side to the dark side well I you know I had a very good opportunity from to politicians who I really respect education minister Naphtali Bennett and justice minister area that you get to join them in their run for Knesset and I thought you know given the accomplishments that both of them have achieved in office and the fact that our views on where's or should be in the world economically and visibly the Palestinians are very closely aligned when they asked me to join them and run with them for Knesset it seemed like it would be an opportunity for me to really put the ideas that I've been writing about for 18 years into action and implement them on the ground now tell the listeners who've been reading you but don't might not know too much about you personally because you're not the kind of columnist that puts too much about yourself into the columns now you're a politician Iyer now you're there in the limelight tell them who you've been all these years I've spent all these years well I'm a CI I live in a fraud with my my two little boys Yavin chilo and my husband she won and our two dogs I made aliyah in 1991 from the United States to it's after I graduated from Columbia and I went straight into the army I was a lone soldier for five and a half years I served in the defense ministry and then I was a member a core member of Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians throughout the very height of the fake peace process as it worked out with the PLO and I left as captain in the end of at the end of 1996 I went to work with then Prime Minister Netanyahu in his first tenure in office as an assistant foreign policy advisor I went back to the United States kind of masters of public policy from Harvard and came back and I started writing in the in the Hebrew press first of mccrory shown in 2000 and then I joined the Jerusalem Post I've had a lot of opportunities over the past 18 years both in journalism and public policy I went to Iraq with the US forces when they invaded in 2003 was the only woman in an infantry battalion of over 800 men that was the first unit in Baghdad and then on the policy side I've taught in war colleges in Israel in the United States I've been engaged in the think tank work in Washington and in Israel for over a decade and a half meeting with government leaders in the United States administration officials the United States across three administrations and congressional and Senate leaders as well as in countries as diverse as Canada Australia Britain and and others talking about issues of common interest between Israel and in those countries so I've done a lot of things but again I think that over the years I've been considering more and more whether I should throw my hat into the ring again the politics and put my money where my mouth is and try to enact on the policies particularly in relation to the Palestinians as law and so when the opportunity came I decided to take it now party wise people might have guessed over the years that you would be in the furthest right-wing party that maybe you should be running with the oats my Udeid party that is running with by dudy in this election herb there was talk in the previous election that Netanyahu might give a reserved slot that he had available to you he I can tell the listeners that when I met with him he had an article that you had written there right in front of him and he was in the process of considering candidates and the next thing I know the following night a television station here is reporting that you were the choice and I ended up being the person who informed you of that decision that ended up not being final why not Lee could why not oats my Udeid wide Africa if we're allowed to use the word Dafa that can't really be translated into English why specifically knew right well I mean the concept of me running with with it's my adidas just off the wall I mean I didn't have shared ideology with them in my view is that it's immoral to even consider moving Israelis out of their homes and I feel the same as the truth with the Arabs so I mean I don't I don't think that we have much of a common denominator aside from basic sign is amide on oh I anybody would have said that that's just weird and regarding me you know we could I mean in 2015 there were a lot of reasons mitigating the opportunity of going into politics at the time for me the most important one was the fact that my children were very young my youngest one it was just turning 3 and it just didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me to to change my lifestyle when they were so small but you know the other thing just in terms of why why the amino Hadassah Natalie could I think you know we're seeing now in particular is that each time that Netanyahu forms a coalition and it really does seem from all the polls that he's the only one with the with the conceivable government to form after the election so that he will be reelected for a fourth consecutive term on April 9th is that you know when they make it with left-wing parties we'd be like the Labour Party in 2009 or with Tzipi Livni and the two new odd that she had in 2013 we end up seeing governance that's implementing the positions of the left even though Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't share their vision for partition England of Israel and establishing account in the entire state is just the nature of the beast and when they when he makes the coalition government with the right as he did in the past government you Seymour governance from the right you see an abandonment of the non-consensus tablished a Palestinian terror state and you see the aunt of releasing terrorists from prison and and other very key issues and so we want to make sure that when we couldn't form the next government that they former with the right so that we can finally get off of this you know fake peace process merry-go-round from Elm Street and just move forward and secure Israel's interests in Judea Samaria and in the international arena fruit for for years to come now we're speaking the day after Jared Kushner the President of the United States son-in-law and senior advisor gave an interview in Abu Dhabi to Sky News where he revealed that the deal of the century that he's been working on now for two years is going to include a Palestinian state recognized borders for Israel that Palestinian state will have a capital in Jerusalem apparently and it's very hard to see how Netanyahu who has received so much from this administration when the Iran deal being broken the embassy here in Jerusalem how he would be able to say no to a President of the United States who bills himself as so pro-israel and who he has worked so closely with how will you be there the person who spoke as the keynote speaker at a pro Trump rally a week before he was elected president of the United States you're now going to be the opposition stopping this plan for moving forward absolutely yes we are you know I mean I think one of the things that we have to first of all I mean we have to realize that when the Americans present their plans officially there is Israel and specifically Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be subjected to massive pressure is going to be subjected to pressure from the left here from the US from the EU from the legal fraternity here from the media to to embrace the American plan and there's only going to be one force that's going to be pressuring him not to and that's the Israeli right and the stronger we are at the ballot box the more mandates that we receive on April 9th the more the more we're going to be able to bring our bring our position to bear in the in the in the coalition negotiations and in the next government and I think it's very important look I mean you know President Trump didn't move the embassy to Jerusalem just because he wanted to be nice he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem to write a historic wrong that the United States was not recognizing Israel's capital despite the fact that they're weird their most important and most loyal ally in the Middle East when he walked away from the I rain nuclear deal he didn't do it just because it was deleterious in the extreme to Israel's national security was also terrible for the United States it was empowering the United States his most dangerous an active enemy which is Iran at the expense of the United States and its allies so you know these aren't things that he did just because he was being nice and it's important to bear that in mind it's also important to bear in mind the fact that the Trump administration really is friendly towards Israel so that when we oppose this idea of partitioning Jerusalem and giving 90 percent of Judea Samaria to terrorists we're not doing it out of some sort of personal antipathy towards anybody in the administration to the contrary we think that this plan is antithetical to US national security interest almost is that almost as much as it is to Israel's and you can talk to these people this isn't the Obama administration we have the ability to communicate with them and we should use it I mean I'm it's not that you know we should go into some sort of group hysteria we should just say no and explain why and see what we can do going forward given that this plan is a non-starter as it's being presented have you made any efforts to reach out to the Trump administration and be able to influence this plan before it's revealed I mean they knew how to find you to be the speaker at that big event under that and one could argue had an impact on the American election that the event with the old city walls in the background was broadcast live and all the Christian evangelical television stations it was broadcast and a loop on those stations ahead of the election a lot of those Christian evangelicals weren't planning on voting and voted because they saw Donald Trump speak and via satellite with the old city walls in the background over there he that event made him kosher in the eyes of those Christian voters and there you were the the keynote speaker everybody saw that speech you were seen as the ultimate Israeli supporter of drop by the United States can you be the ester that's there at the right time to save the Jewish people from your point of view um you know I hadn't realized that the rally that you're discussing had such an impact I'm sort of bowled over but that that's that's fantastic that's true because obvious the alternative Hillary Clinton would have been terrible for Israel so to the extent that I had anything to do with enabling the election of the most pro-israel president that we've seen is it makes makes me happy I think again you know that we have to be clear minded when we when we broach the subject and again from the immediate perspective of the elections the most important thing to do is to ensure that the right-wing block is as powerful as possible which is really the aim of the human AHA - in this election because we want to ensure that Netanyahu leshan under duress from the US and a host of other very powerful interest groups with godson Lafitte and that they will just run - the American plan say yes this is exactly what we want we wanted to stick it to the settlers because we are you know people with no strategic understanding of the dynamics of the sorts of things that that that are on the table right here because we made this mistake over and over and over again and we insist on word keep on repeating it we don't want that to happen we want to revert that we want to have a strong right-wing Israeli government with billy code at the helm and the you mean AHA - is a senior coalition partner because we believe that that's the way to both maintain good relations with the Trump administration our friends and also to ward off the dangers that's manifested in this plan okay so my last question before I let you go off and walk those nice dogs that you have thank you his listeners I spoke to an event in Jerusalem about a week ago of a Jewish organization here were the average age of the people at the event was it say about 80 and at the end I when I asked for questions the first question was when is Carolyn Glick coming back to the Jerusalem Post and I said well it's in your hands if you don't vote for her maybe she won't get and maybe she'll come back now at the time I didn't know where he'd be on the list and yes since then you were placed number six the party gets six seats in the polls right now is there hope of getting you back and if you do get elected are you there maybe for one term we've been saying this this Knesset term only lasts about a year anyway or are you like gone for good on the other side look you know I'm a writer I mean it's just part of who I am it's already after 18 years of writing so many columns so you know every week it's just sort of been great it's been grafted onto my DNA so I think that regardless I will be writing perhaps not in the same frequency that I was doing when I was earning my living but I have to say you know I came I've entered politics because I've decided that you know this is this is the place I have to be right now and you know and this is this is a place that I can make the largest impact for the for the better in this country right now you know I hadn't intended to go into journalism unlike you I didn't go to journalism school I went to school and public policy and I was writing for over a year before I figured out that I had become a writer you know in a professional sense so I I think you know I do what I do because I think where I am is where I can make the biggest contribution and so long you know I'm committed to the path that I've embarked on and as so long as I feel that I'm going to be able to make a difference for this country and this people that's significant and important I'm going to remain on this path wonderful I'm gonna have mercy on you and let you go you your voice seems to my poor dogs who are going crazy and jumping up on me every second okay we are we are Pro dog here on inside Israel today at the Land of Israel Network thank you for coming on this show and then listeners will have more meet the candidates we've gone right left right left not too many left-wing parties and so Carolyn thank you so much and good luck thanks and thanks to all your listeners for hearing me out take care good bye after the break we'll talk more about what's going on inside Israel today for Rosh Chodesh and our bet this coming new moon we are doing the Land of Israel Network Sabaton at the Dead Sea called the Israel inspired retreat where there's going to be Torah study and connection and meditation and prayer and we're going to be able to connect and to talk about everything that's going on in Israel today on spiritual levels it's going to be a really special weekend you can find out about it on the land of Israel dots travel that's the Land of Israel dot to travel you can see all the details there we'd love to have you join us and we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel com where this week I've had an interesting adventure in Israeli politics I've gotten scoops here and there and everywhere in different kinds of places but little did I know when I went to the synagogue on Shabbat that I would come back with a headline that would put me on the cover of Hebrew newspapers in Israel with my byline would put me in the Washington Post and other media outlets around the world so I did read in advance that the rabbi of the synagogue that's closest to my house was upset about a political decision that had been made rabbi benny lau is the spiritual leader of the Ramban synagogue and he is the nephew of the former chief rabbi of israel the first cousin of the current chief rabbi of israel he is the son of a former diplomat who worked with a few prime ministers and he is a very inspiring person he is one of the leading voices of liberal religious Zionism in Israel his synagogue is the first to have a female spiritual leader alongside the rabbi and he's already announced that he's leaving his pulpit in the summer so he's got very little to lose right now and so on Thursday he put a statement on Facebook that he's upset that by dudy the flagship religious Zionist party decided to accept a request from the Prime Minister Netanyahu to reserve slots on its list for the far-right Oats MA Yahoo DEET Jewish strength party now Netanyahu made this request because he's worried that there will be too many right-wing votes that will be thrown away we have an electoral threshold of three point two five percent of the vote which is expected to be about a hundred fifty thousand votes considering that we have 6.2 million eligible voters in Israel and in the last election we had a 72 percent voter turnout ladies and gentlemen please don't check my math I'm a journalism major have mercy on me and Netanyahu thought this party oh my you deep can get two percent of the vote maybe even three point one percent of the vote but not three point two five and Netanyahu pressuring the by dudy party to reserve slots for them is not an endorsement of the views of votes my Udeid but one could argue on the other side he's getting them into the Knesset now it's my you deed stands for making Israel more of a Jewish state and so they would like to see expelled Arabs who are not loyal to the state now they are followers of rabid mayor Kahana whose party was deemed racist by the Supreme Court back in the 1980s it was in the Knesset and there were those who interpreted roe what rabbi cahana said about having all Arabs be expelled but this is my UD Party is not in favor of all Arabs being expelled know the question of what it means to be loyal to the Jewish state isn't necessarily as clearly defined that as perhaps it should be now the leaders of this party do not consider themselves racist but the conventional wisdom in Israeli society is yes this is a racist party and rabbi Lau wrote on Facebook that this is a racist party and he criticized Netanyahu for facilitating them getting into the Knesset assuming that by dudy will get the five seats the first candidate Amina Alban Ari on this party is fifth on the list he was in the Knesset before he's kind of mild-mannered for an extremist the number eight candidate on by duties Itamar been clear Itamar been vir is not mild-mannered he is loud he explains his positions extremely well he is an attorney he sues people if you misconstrue his positions which I believe I've been pretty careful not to do myself and if he makes it into the Knesset that is certainly a very strong voice for views that most Israelis would consider racist even though he himself will argue very articulately why he's not racist now Netanyahu is also promised to pass what's called the Norwegian law the Norwegian law is intended to facilitate the Parliament working better by having no ministers and deputy ministers serve in the parliament they would automatically quit not even having to do anything automatically they would not be ministers or deputies the next people on the list would enter and if they quit the their job as minister or a deputy they can come back and that member of Knesset would then leave the Parliament right now we have what's called a mini Norwegian law where every party can but is not required to have one minister or deputy quit in favor of the next candidate on the list and if that minister or deputy quits their post as minister or a deputy that member of Knesset has to leave so right now if by Edie would get four seats in the Knesset then with when their Minister deputy quits miel ben-ari would get in now assuming that if they get six seats they would probably have two ministers then all they need is to have six seats and Itamar been vir would get in and they're getting five six seats in the polls now so I said you know what let's see if this rabbi says anything because he's a rabbi who is not afraid in the past to talk politics from the pulpit and so sure enough he gives aides VAR torah on the Torah portion of the week that lasts about 20 seconds or so and then apologizes and says I'm now going to say something politically that I cannot avoid saying and I was shocked at how far he went he started comparing the ideology of kahan ism to Nazism he said the word Nazism over and over and over again he did not say oats myut is a Nazi Party as he has since written on Facebook to defend himself he did say over and over and over again that kahan ism can be compared to Nazism he encouraged people to read the comparison between the Nuremberg Laws and the policies of cough which have since been spread over the Internet in Hebrew and in English now and he said a vote for by judy is a vote for racism it's a vote for kahan ISM now he a few seconds before that said kahan ISM as Nazism so the headline on the cover of The Jerusalem Post the following day was rabbi Lau a vote for by you D is a vote for Nazism now I put this online immediately after Shabbat it was not easy to wait you know I love Shibata as someone who works 24 hours a day six days a week if it weren't for Shabbat I would plotz but I had to wait with this information I told my cousin in the park that's the extent of me being a journalist immediately after rabbi Lau's speech but I told people after synagogue who came up to me and said wow you got a nice headline there I said I wouldn't be a good journalist if this wasn't online within 15 minutes of when Shabbat ended and indeed it was and then I made sure that the other journalists in Israel would find out about this and give me credit for it and they did oh not too long after that it was on the radio it was on news websites and politicians were reacting to it and they put it on the cover of ma Reve the Hebrew sister publication of the Jerusalem Post with my byline now which was nice to see for my parents anyway who grew up reading my Revere in Israel and to see their sons byline on the cover of the paper and then since then it got picked up by media outlets around the world and this all came from me deciding to go to a different synagogue that I normally go to on Shabbat and since then been vir has filed a lawsuit against rabbi Lau asking for a hundred thousand shekels in that damages for slander there have been members of the Rambam congregation who've called upon rabbi Lau to quit rabbi Lau himself and his speech said if anyone is a problem with what I said then I will leave immediately and we'll see what's going to end up happening with that I will see I wasn't planning on coming to Rome on this coming Shabbat but I think I might have to now and we'll see what kind of follow-up that there will be and I think the moral of the story is go to shul on Shabbat this has been Gil Hoffman broadcasting from here in Jerusalem as we said at the end of the previous segment we will continue our meet the candidates series let's think about who we can have next week if you have any suggestions then you can send to me at Gil at J post comm just consider these a hoots party of Moshe Feiglin has already been interviewed by Josh hastin and so any party other than the ones I've already done plus is a hoot that's already been done happy to interview next week inside Israel today thank you hi this is Eve herro host of rejuvenation on the Land of Israel Network you came here a new show for me every Sunday and every day of the week shows from another one of my very talented fellow show hosts reach me Eve at the Land of Israel calm and keep listening everybody we love your feedback the Land of Israel coming at you every day every week that's the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm